It was designed to enable the Home Front
Command, the Israel Police, Magen David Adom and the Fire and Rescue Services to
receive the same tactical data of an area struck by missiles.

“This means
that a commander will be able to see where ambulances are located, where fire
trucks are and utilize these assets more effectively,” a senior officer in the
Home Front Command explained.

The IDF and the Israel Police came under
harsh criticism in the recent State Comptroller’s Report on the 2010 Mount
Carmel forest fire over the lack of coordination and faulty crisis
management.

“The new system will show the location of each missile that
has struck in Israel and help emergency services reach the scene quicker,” the
officer said.

The second system, scheduled to become operational in
August, uses cellular networks to send warnings of incoming missile attacks to
residents’ individual cellphones.

The IDF has been working on integrating
the system into its early-warning program – mostly based on air-raid sirens –
but has encountered resistance from several Israeli cellular companies. The
carriers do not want to enable their phones to receive the warnings, which come
in the form of a text message.

“This will improve our ability to issue
warnings just to people who are inside a specific area that is going to be hit
by missiles,” the officer explained.